Seascape Wedding Inspiration

Having just visited French Polynesia on my honeymoon, I was feeling inspired to do a sea scape moodboard. We were lucky enough to witness a few weddings whilst there, from very grand ones with gorgeously decorated arbours on the outside patios of the luxury resorts, to very simple but chic ones at sunset on the beach. A beach setting can be easy in that you use all of your surroundings as your décor, but there are also simple things you can incorporate if you want to recreate the setting somewhere less warm.

An obvious start would be to do a day trip to the seaside, or visit your desired resort a few days before, to scavenge. Scavenging on the beach, any beach, is one of my absolute all-time favourite things to do. Regardless of getting married! I find it very calming, and you never know what you’re going to find!

Make it into a fun day out for you and your hubby in the weeks leading up to the wedding, and take some champers and some strong plastic bags. I hardly saw my husband in the days leading up to our wedding, we were so busy, but it would have been great to schedule in something like this as some quality time together – scavenging or not.

I’ve found so many interesting things on the beach (home and abroad) that now adorn my home, from shells to broken pottery, to old bottles and bits of driftwood. I especially love the frosted matt effect that the sea gives glass and pottery. A glue gun and some craft wire only add to the rustic look when I piece them all together! Even the most banal of things, broken shells and pebbles say, can look great once washed off and scattered in glass jars. Ikea and Poundland do great glass jars and candle holders from as little as 80p that would make great centrepieces once embellished, and could also double up as favours for the wedding party – and each one would be completely unique.

The colour palette is soft and cool, calm and relaxed; using hues of clear blue and turquoise but also neutral and golden sand tones. Shells and rope have been scattered on tables to easily convey the theme, however if your venue is strict with décor these can also always be placed strategically in the bride’s hair piece or bouquet, as above.

A super cute idea from the above would be a ‘message in a bottle’ table plan, or to display your escort cards as a message in a bottle per guest. Then the place settings are painted pieces of scavenged broken glass, the sea has worn down the edges to make them smooth and frosted. However, it might be quite time consuming to find enough bits of glass large enough for every guest’s name, so you may wish to consider this only for your top table! That way you can go all out.

With this seascape theme, the unfinished rustic look is key, so don’t worry about making it too pretty – the rugged details are essential to the charm!

I love this theme because it’s so easy to do on any budget, all you need is a return ticket to the seaside and some imagination!

A seaside wedding theme was also quoted in the FT recently (June 17th, 2016) as a top money saving tip from ‘How to save money on your wedding – readers respond’, due to an abundance of natural and free seaside resources that can be used to style your wedding (pebbles, shells, driftwood etc). The article also noted to continue the theme by using a local fish and chip shop for your wedding breakfast and buying your cutlery and crockery from Ikea, as this works out cheaper than hiring it!